1. Field of the Invention
It is common for owners and/or occupants of residential and commercial property to surround their property, in whole or in part, with a chain link fence to prevent or restrict the passage of people or animals across property lines. Chain link fencing does serve these purposes, but it has certain disadvantages. The appearance of chain link fencing is strictly utilitarian, and not necessarily attractive. Further, chain link fencing provides no privacy to the occupiers of the property, nor does it prevent the occupiers of the property from observing possibly distasteful views, such as that of passing traffic and the like.
To improve the appearance of chain link fencing, and to provide a degree of privacy to the occupiers of the property, it is a common practice to insert opaque slats between the links of the chain link fencing, usually in a vertical orientation. These slats occupy almost all of the lineal distance between the topmost and lowermost links of the fencing, and are usually restrained from falling through the fencing by means of an upwardly-concave channel inserted horizontally through the lowermost links of the fencing. The lower end of the slats rests in the channel.
The slat which is customarily used with chain link fencing is a flexible tube with a flattened cross-section, the long sides seen in cross-section being parallel, and the ends being approximately semi-circular. The width of the slat, as the word will be used hereinafter, is the width as seen in an external view; that is, the width of the slat is the distance between the extremes of the circular portions of the cross-section. The depth of the slat is the distance between the outer surfaces of opposite flattened sides of the slat.
Such slats are manufactured of polyethylene or similar plastic, although they can, and have been, made of wood or metal. The vast majority of such slats sold are, however, plastic. They are offered by manufacturers in various colors. There are various widths of slat to accommodate different sizes of fence mesh, but the depth of the slats is relatively uniform, and may vary from 0.310 inches (7.87 mm) to 0.315 inches (8.0 mm).
Chain link fences are subject to displacement of the slats, either by accident, or because of vandalism--the latter caused by persons who wilfully remove the slats and discard them, thereby creating an unsightly appearance, and destroying the privacy of the occupiers of the property.
2. Description of Related Art
Attempts to prevent the removal, intentional or otherwise, of slats from chain link fencing have consisted of methods or articles that require additional time to assemble into place. Such means require more of an assembler than merely inserting a channel along the bottom, and inserting the slats vertically through the fence links into the channel. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,044 of Cluff discloses a separate clip to be used with each slat and, in some embodiments, the use of a special lower channel as well as using one clip per slat.